Teatime newslinks for Wednesday 16th November

EUROPE & THE ECONOMIC CRISIS

• Bank of England slashes UK economic growth forecast - Guardian
• Governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King, sees a "worsened" economic outlook, saying that the eurozone debt crisis was the "single biggest risk" to the UK - BBC
• UK economy will flatline until 2013, warns King - Times (£)
• New Italian PM Mario Monti unveils his Government, appointed himself as economy minister - Telegraph
• Italy unveils a Government of technocrats - Guardian
• Janet Daley on Italy: "When and how is democracy to be re-instated in the third largest economy of Europe? And if it is not re-instated in the near future, does that make a nonsense of the rule that a country must be a democracy to be eligible for membership of the EU?" - Telegraph
• Daniel Korski on Lord Wolfon's £250,000 reward to the person who can work out how to leave the €uro - Spectator
• Robert Colville: Will the Coalition crack under the strain, now that meeting the deficit target,  "the chief raison d'etre for the Coalition has disappeared" - Telegraph

Teatime newslinks for Tuesday 15th November 2011

BRODIE CLARK, EX-CHIEF OF UK BORDER FORCE ADDRESSES MPS

• Brodie Clark tells MPs that he is no "rogue officer", he also says that he "introduced no additions to the home secretary's trial, neither did I extend it or alter it in any way whatsoever. I was meticulous in ensuring that my top operational team and my senior port managers had complete clarity on the home secretary's requirements" - BBC
• Brodie Clark and Rob Whiteman at the Home Affairs Select Committee - PoliticsHome
• Clark tells Committee that the pilot scheme was operated to his instructions, personally briefing staff on how far they could go - Times (£)
• Clark: 'My reputation has been destroyed' - Guardian
• UK Border Force chief Brodie Clark says he was "meticulous" in meeting Theresa May's requirements - PlayPolitical
• Peter Hoskin: May's "reputation in government has been built on the idea that she's a ‘safe pair of hands’ at the Home Office; but, until we reach some sort of catharsis, these attacks from Clark will cast that into doubt" - Spectator
• Nick Robinson: 'Beware an official scorned' - BBC
• James Kirkup: 'Did the Home Secretary know that border checks could be relaxed?' - Telegraph
• Brodie Clark breaks silence on Border Agency scandal - Telegraph
• Damian Green responds to leaked emails revealing concerns over checks of private jet passengers, saying the strategy was "entirely consistent with our overall approach to border security of using more intelligence-led checks against high-risk passengers and journeys" - Telegraph

Teatime newslinks for Monday 14th November 2011

IN PARLIAMENT TODAY

• Philip Hammond's first Defence Questions: Says aircraft carrier scrapping made no difference to Libya operation - "Thanks to our overseas basing rights the unavailability of a UK aircraft carrier had no significant effect on the UK's participation in military operations over Libya. This was clearly demonstrated by the outstanding performance of our armed forces over and off the coast of Libya and civilian and military staff that supported them...The decision made in relation to carrier capability were painful decisions but they were the right ones in Britain's long-term interest" - PoliticsHome (£)
• "Defence Minister Andrew Robathan has said the Defence Secretary has had "no recent discussions" about creating a new post of Chief Coroner for bereaved families." - PolHome
• "Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has told MPs that ground-to-air missiles will be deployed to protect the 2012 Olympic Games in London if deemed operationally necessary." - BBC

PHONE HACKING SCANDAL

• "The names of 28 News International employees appear in notebooks belonging to Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who worked for the News of the World, the Leveson inquiry into press standards heard on its first day at London's high court." - Guardian
• Video: bloggers including Guido Fawkes give evidence to joint committee of MPs and peers on privacy and the media

EUROZONE & ECONOMIC CRISIS

• "None of the world's major economies will escape a slowdown, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said on Monday, highlighting increasing signs that growth momentum is dwindling across the board." - Bloomberg
• Markets slide as Spanish bond yields hit 6pc - Daily Telegraph liveblog
• "Mario Monti started work to form a new government of national unity for Italy, as the country moved swiftly to try to restore credibility in its fractured political establishment before markets opened on Monday." - Wall Street Journal Europe
• "Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, called on Monday for Europe to focus once more on building a “political union” to underpin the euro and emerge from the current financial crisis stronger than before. ... “It is time for a breakthrough to a new Europe,” she told the annual party conference of the Christian Democratic Union in Leipzig. “The task of Germany is to complete economic and monetary union, and build political union in Europe, step-by-step."" - FT (£)
• As Merkel's party's conference opens, Andrew Marshall writes on International: Why the CDU's EU policy "is not only a rational matter, but an emotional commitment"
• Anthony Browne on our Columnists' page: The European Commission's proposal to regulate credit rating agencies is simply shooting the messenger
• ToryDiary: Boris and the Government at odds (again) as he calls for the break-up of the Euro
• LeftWatch: Labour's Shadow Foreign Secretary adopts a policy of "mature patriotism" towards Europe

OTHER TORY & POLITICAL NEWS

• MPsETC: Labour MP Alan Keen dies
• Video: Baroness Trumpington uses a v-sign to show just what she thinks of colleagues making reference to her age - TotalPolitics
• "Suspended Labour peer Baroness Uddin is set to be allowed back into the House of Lords without repaying the £125,000 she owes in wrongly claimed expenses." - BBC
• "The UK’s housing shortage and the problems around obtaining a mortgage mean that Britain is becoming a nation of renters, according to a new survey." - Daily Telegraph
• "As the spending cuts bite, the distance between what ministers say they want the state to deliver, and what it in practice it can, may well grow." - FT Westminster

Teatime newslinks for Remembrance Day

ARMISTICE DAY 

• Britain falls silent to remember war dead - Telegraph I Guardian
• Armistice Day around the world in pictures - Guardian
• Phillip Hammond attends a "poignant" ceremony in Afghanistan - BBC
• Once fighting in Afghanistan ends, awareness of the armed forces "may diminish", says Nick Harvey - MPsETC
• Ed West: 'There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets who lie side by side' - Telegraph
• Poppies have become Britain's star-spangled banner, argues Yo Zushi - "The appropriate response to the attention-seeking idiocy of Muslims Against Crusades is, as Justice Brennan might have said, to counter that group's flames with a salute" - New Statesman
• 'Macho' policing 'threat' to protesters on Armistice Day - Guardian
• 170 EDL supporters have been arrested in Westminster. It was believed the far right group had plans to target Occupy London - Guardian I Times (£)

€UROZONE CRISIS

• Cameron hints that the top rate of income tax will stay - Guardian
• Crisis raises doubts about the future of the single currency, says Cameron - "It's a very difficult time for the eurozone ... There is real turbulence in the markets, real question marks over whether countries can deal with their debts and a big question mark over the future of the eurozone," he said in an interview on BBC Radio 2 - Telegraph
• 'My priority is to keep the economy safe' says Cameron - PlayPolitical
• Osborne says that the financial crisis gripping the €urozone is hitting British jobs and growth - BBC
• Osborne's debt reduction strategy has saved £16.5 billion in interest payments - ToryDiary
• Italy passes crucial austerity measures, clearing the way for Berlusconi to quit - Guardian
• What are Italy's fresh austerity measures? - Telegraph
• Simon Heffer: 'Will Italy rise up against rule from Berlin?' - Daily Mail
• Merkel tells new Greek PM, Lucas Papademos that Germany will "stand by" Athens - Telegraph
• Eamonn Butler: "Euroland politicians realising the game is over and deconstructing the Euro peacefully is unlikely" - ASI Blog
• Daniel Korski: Britain is, once again, being marginalised in Europe - a European pariah? - Spectator
• Charles Crawford: 'When to demand far-reaching EU treaty changes – and when not to' - Telegraph

OTHER TORY & POLITICAL NEWS

• John Major has called on Britain to stop using the term "special relationship" with regards to the US. Major described it as "patronising", "sentimental" and that it should be "consigned to history" - BBC
• Louise Mensch MP: 'Why is the BBC using licence fee money to pay a man who wishes Margaret Thatcher dead?' - Telegraph
• John Bercow describes Westminster security as "messy, complex and amateurish" - Times (£)
• Dan Hodges: Yvette Cooper: the next leader of the Labour party - "Yvette Cooper is preparing to step out of her husband’s shadow. Neither David Cameron nor Ed Miliband will welcome the sight of her standing in the sun" - Telegraph
• Jailed Lord Hanningfield tells the BBC he has been through "hell" over the past years because of his expenses - BBC

Teatime newslinks for Thursday 10th November 2011

€UROZONE CRISIS

• Cameron: "€urozone moment of truth is fast approaching" - Telegraph
• ECB must act now, says Cameron, or the €uro will fail - Guardian I Evening Standard
• "If the leaders of the eurozone want to save their currency then they – together with the institutions of the eurozone - must act now. The longer the delay, the greater the danger," Cameron said - Huffington Post
• Live blogs on the €urozone crisis - Guardian I Telegraph
• Lucas Papademos is named as the new interim Prime Minister of Greece, whilst Mario Monti,  former EU Competition Commissioner, looks "anointed" to take the place of Silvio Berlusconi  - Times (£)
• Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: 'Sorry, there is no €uro break-up plan yet' - Telegraph
• Alex Brummer: 'Loss of faith in Rome brings the €urozone crisis a step closer to France' - Daily Mail
• Ed West: 'Yet another Catholic country needs a bailout from the Protestan north' - "This is not to argue that northern Europe is better than southern ... but it goes to illustrate how difficult it is to fix different national cultures into one political and economic structure" - Telegraph
• "As Italy follows Greece into bankruptcy, and the risible Silvio Berlusconi departs the stage, the day we dreaded is now upon us" - 'Not a penny more to feed EU profilgacy' - Daily Mail

CAMERON'S PLANS FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH

• PM sets out plans for RBS, Natwest and HSBC to help distribute money from Regional Growth Fund - Guardian
• Tim Bradshaw: 'David Cameron returns to Silicon Roundabout, touting growth, electric cars and augmented reality' - FT
• Cameron hails the success of London's tech city - Business Zone I Telegraph

JAMES MURDOCH AND THE HACKING INQUIRY

• Live blogs from the Hacking Inquiry - Telegraph
• Tom Watson: "Mr Murdoch, you must be the first mafia boss in history who didn't realise he was running a criminal enterprise" - PlayPolitical
• Watson scoffs at Murdoch over his claims he didn't know hacking was widespread - Mail
• Murdoch says that News International cannot rule out closing the Sun - Guardian
• James Murdoch claims he wasn't the one who misled MPs, it was Tom Crone and Colin Myler - Telegraph
• Ian Burrell: 'James Murdoch emerges with reputation scarred' - Independent
• John Kampfner: 'James Murdoch: Dead man walking?' - Guardian
• Brendan O'Neill: 'News International has only done to Tom Watson what Watson's political party already did to the rest of us' - Telegraph

OTHER TORY & POLITICAL NEWS 

• Theresa May announces the ban of Muslims Against Crusades, who were responsible for buring poppies on last year's Armistice Day - Guardian I BBC
• Chris Skidmore MP: 'Britain needs its own green card' - "Green cards provide a recognition that citizenship is not an automatic right that can simply be applied for, but rather a journey, during along which applicants must prove their contribution to civic society, both in terms of employment but also towards their neighbourhood and local community" - Telegraph
• Dan Hodges: 'Play the politics of immigration, and you'll only get your fingers burnt' - Telegraph
• How do we tackle the prejudice of the far right? - Guardian
• Katherine Birbalsingh: "It is not our young people who are a grave disappointment. It is all the adults who refuse to see what is perfectly clear. We used to raise and educate our children very well. People still do it in other countries. Why is that so hard to see?" - Telegraph
• David Skelton: The Conservatives have a lot to learn from former Australian PM, John Howard's appeal to blue collar voters - Platform 10
• Ruth Davidson unveils front-bench team, including role for all her leadership rivals - STV
• Conservatives want the Ulster Unionist Party to disband, and form new Tory-led party - BBC
• Allan Mallinson: 'Iran: If it comes to an Israeli strike, what might we do?' - Daily Mail

Teatime newslinks for Wednesday 9th November 2011

PMQS REACTIONS

• WATCH: David Cameron: Border Agency pilot "was an operational decision, but one I fully back and think that [Theresa May] was right to take"
• ToryDiary: PMQs - weak Miliband fails to score points on Border Agency scandal
• "After a third morning of nasty front pages, Theresa May would have been less than human if she wasn’t a tad anxious about PMQs today. Fortunately for the Home Secretary, she had lots of allies in the Commons, none of them more helpful than Ed Miliband." - James Kirkup
• "PMQs was a disappointment. Few jokes, even fewer good lines - and no "gotcha" questions from Ed Miliband. Bizarrely, the Labour leader decided to devote all his six bites of the cherry to the ongoing border control row" - Mehdi Hasan
• "Crumpled, poor Mr Miliband burbled through a rice-paper list of generic insults. ‘Broken promises, blame everyone else, shambolic government, out of touch prime minister.’ He was back to Ed Nauseam again. He sounded like Action Man when you pull the string out of his back." - Lloyd Evans
• "We’ve previously seen David Cameron transmogrify into Gordon Brown to berate Labour for ‘talking down the economy’. Today he again took on a Brownite tactic and chanted facts and attack points. Lots of them." - Ben Duckworth

Teatime newslinks for Tuesday 8th November 2011

CAMERON IN FRONT OF SELECT COMMITTEE

• On the possible use of rubber bullets by police for protests/riots planned tomorrow: "I think these are matters for the police operationally to take."
• On benefits: "I think it will teach people a lesson that if you claim benefits, a benefit called Jobseeker's Allowance but you're not looking for work, you can't expect to go on claiming the benefit."
• On St. Paul's: "I've got this rather quaint view you shouldn't be able to erect tents all over the place, I think protest being something you on the whole should do on two feet rather than lying down, in some cases in a fairly comatose state."
• In order to empower the Big Society, the government is offering "a big surrender of power from central government to local government"
• The Prime Minister says that cities "need the ability to have the resources at their disposal to make the big decisions". He adds that he is a "big believer" in mayors, and wants all cities to have them.
• All the above from the liveblog of David Cameron's appearance before the Liaison Select Committee - PolHome (£)

Teatime newslinks for Monday 7th November 2011

THERESA MAY & THE UK BORDER AGENCY CONTROVERSY

• In a statement to the Commons, May says "there are three separate reviews into different aspects of the affair. One, by John Vine, the independent chief inspector of the UKBA, will consider the actions taken by ministers". The Guardian's live blog reports that May "wants to ensure that those responsible are "punished" and that border staff can never again take such risks with border security" - Guardian
• Theresa May admits looser border checks - "May admitted today that she had personally authorised a “pilot” project under which some travellers arriving from the European Union were allowed through UK airports without the normal checks.But Ms May told MPs that the suspended head of the UK border force had acted on his own and “authorised the wider relaxation of border controls without ministerial sanction” - Times (£) I Guardian
• "Cameron has full confidence in Home Secretary Theresa May, who has not offered to resign as a result of the controversy over border checks, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said today" - Telegraph
• Cameron's spokesman revealed that PM "was not informed of the decision to relax the checks over the summer, saying it was an operational decision to be taken within the department" - "The Prime Minister was informed when it was apparent there was a problem" - Independent 
• Workers claim passport checks were "suspended daily" for "at least half of each shift - Telegraph
• 10 questions May must answer, including "How many foreign nationals were able to enter the UK without full checks on their travel documents?" - Telegraph
• Michael White: 'Stop the blame game' - "I have no idea how Theresa May plans to talk her way out of trouble over the latest UK Border Agency shambles when she faces MPs this afternoon. But we can't afford to lose another home secretary or immigration minister (Damian Green has enemies too) over our collective failure to get a proper grip on the unusually well-defined frontiers of this sceptred isle and its more porous outlying territories" - Guardian
• James Forsyth: "May’s reputation for keeping her ministerial team on the tightest of leashes, has created a problem" - Spectator
• Government in full retreat on forced marriages - "Foreign spouses will be allowed to come to the UK from the age of 18 as the Government today bowed to a Supreme Court ruling on the marriage age for non-EU migrants" - Times (£)

Teatime newslinks for Friday 4th November 2011

€UROZONE CRISIS

• Cameron warns that doubts about the €uro are dragging Britain towards recession - 'World fails to ride to €uro's rescue' - Times (£)
• Cameron: "It is in Britain's interest that the eurozone crisis is sorted out as rapidly as possible. It is having a chilling effect on our economy and for every day it goes on not resolved, it is a day that is not good for our economy. That is fact" - Guardian
• IMF funding boost will not risk UK money - BBC
• PM also insists however, that "progress has been made" at the G20 summit - Telegraph and is ready to boost IMF funds - ITN
• Osborne: ""We are dealing with our debts, dealing with our situation, but we are also planning and prepared for whatever the world and whatever the eurozone throws at us." - Telegraph
• Daniel Hannan: 'Britain is sent the bill to prop up a currency it didn't join' - Telegraph
• Daniel Knowles: 'Labour's new Euroscepticism should worry the Coalition'- "It's quite easy to ignore Ed Balls these days.. But every now and again, the Shadow Chancellor says or does something more interesting than he gets credit for. Last night was such an occasion. The announcement that Labour will oppose any increase in Britain's contribution to the IMF ought to be taken seriously: this could present a serious headache for the Government" - Telegraph
• Daniel Korski: Cameron should appoint a Special Negotiator in Brussels to push a British agenda - Spectator
• Live blogs about the €urozone debt crisis - Guardian I Telegraph I Times (£)
• The full text of the final Communiqué at the G20 summit in Cannes - Telegraph
• Greek PM Papandreou faces a "knife-edge" vote later on tonight - Guardian
• Merkel warns that the G20 summit could end without expected funds for bailout, and to the IMF - Guardian
• G20 leaders press Italy to accept IMF checks on cuts programme - Guardian I Times (£)
• Barroso says that Italy called in the IMF "to monitor implementation of its austerity measures in order to bolster their credibility" - Bloomberg

Teatime newslinks for Thursday 3rd November 2011

€UROZONE CRISIS

• Cameron says Britain is ready to boost IMF funding - Telegraph
• Cameron appeals for unity as Greek PM clings to power - Evening Standard
• British taxpayers won't be hurt, Cameron promises, if UK government increases funding of IMF - PlayPolitical
• Rafael Behr: 'Either Britain will bailout the €uro, or it won't. There's no middle way' - New Statesman
• Nick Robinson: 'Are taxpayers stumping up for the €urozone?' - BBC
• Live coverage from the G20 summit in Cannes - Guardian - full programme of the G20 summit - Telegraph
• Live blogs on the European debt crisis - Guardian I Telegraph
• Greek PM Papandreou tells Sky News that a referendum on a €urozone bail out plan will not go ahead, nor was it his intention for it to happen - Sky News
• Greek PM 'calls off referendum' and refuses to quit as bailout farce carries on - Daily Mail
• Nick Wood: 'Papandreou bullied into backing down on referendum' - Daily Mail
• Vassilis Monastiriotis: 'No Greek referendum, but no stability either' - Guardian
• "The European dream is transmogrifying into something very nasty indeed" says Janet Daley, as EU threats to Greece become more hysterical - Telegraph
• Daniel Knowles: 'If Greece leaves the €uro, it'll be a failed state in minutes' - Telegraph
• David Hughes on the €uro's death spiral - "Given the palpable sense of panic among eurozone leaders – witness their thuggish warnings to Greece – and the clear impression that no one really has a clue about what to do, and the growing sense that EU member states are starting to loathe each other, we could well be getting close to the death spiral" - Telegraph
• James Forsyth on the €uro sparking a Cabinet row between Michael Gove and Chris Huhne - Spectator